Characterizing Cognition in Everyday Life of Older Adults With Subjective Cognitive Decline.
Shlomit Rotenberg, Deirdre R Dawson
PMID 35499254WHAT IT FOUND
Older adults who felt their thinking was worsening but scored normal on tests reported less memory satisfaction, more everyday planning and working memory problems, and completed fewer real-world tasks than healthy adults.
This suggests asking about daily tasks, not only test scores.
Key findings
01In 135 older adults with subjective cognitive decline, 28% reported below-average memory satisfaction, compared with 15.87% expected in a normal distribution.
02Participants reported significantly more executive problems on the BRIEF-A Global Executive Composite and Metacognitive Index, and the working memory subscale had the highest proportion of clinically meaningful impairment.
03On the real-world errands task, participants completed an average of 6.3 of 12 tasks and broke 2.9 of 10 rules.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The sample was mostly Caucasian, highly educated, and free of current depression, so it may not represent older adults with different backgrounds, lower education, or mood symptoms. The group was compared with published normative or comparator samples rather than a concurrent control group, so demographic differences between groups may explain some findings. Subjective cognitive decline was defined by yes/no questions about cognitive problems, which may miss people whose decline is mild or fluctuating. The study did not measure memory self-efficacy, which may influence reported memory concerns.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest. The study received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, grant No. 366538.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the Multiple Errands Test result as proof of dementia or as evidence that a treatment works. This study described current function in older adults with subjective cognitive decline and compared them with published samples, not a matched control group.